The Other 80 Percent: Turning Your Church’s Spectators Into Active Participants

by Scott Thumma and Warren Bird

Jossey-Bass (a Leadership Network publication). 256 pages

reviewed by ANDREW PLOUCHER

What about the inactive members? Where’d they go? If you’ve ever asked this question, deflected it during a tense session meeting or been frustrated with the challenges of developing a more active church membership, “The Other 80 Percent” is a must read.

Book Reviews

Toxic Charity: How Churches and Charities Hurt Those They Help

by Robert Lupton

HarperOne, San Francisco. 208 pages

reviewed by MIKE LITTLE

Can our charitable efforts to help the poor actually harm the very people we set out to help? In his most recent book, “Toxic Charity: How Churches and Charities Hurt Those They Help,” Robert Lupton contends the answer is unequivocally “yes.” In fact, he believes the harmful consequences of our charitable work are a national scandal.

Voices

What happened to PUP?

News from other sources

Faith leaders slam bid for Christian state

(ENInews) In Monrovia, Liberia's capital city, hundreds of civilians have been signing a petition that is seeking to make the West African country a Christian nation.

Outlook Reporting

Board of Pensions approves benefits for same-gender domestic partners

Starting in 2013, the Board of Pensions of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) will begin offering benefits to same-gender domestic partners of those who are members of the board’s pension and other benefits plans.

Outlook Reporting

Janet Edwards to stand for moderator

A fifth candidate has emerged to stand for moderator of the 2012 General Assembly. Janet Edwards, co-moderator of More Light Presbyterians from 2008-2011 and a Presbyterian minister for 35 years, has announced that she will stand for moderator, even though Pittsburgh Presbytery voted on Feb. 2 not to endorse her.

Edwards is a graduate of Yale Divinity School and earned a doctorate from Duquesne University. She currently is involved with Community of Reconciliation Church, a multi-denominational congregation in Pittsburgh, although she is not the pastor there. Edwards and her husband, Alvise, have been married for more than 30 years and have two sons.

Outlook Reporting

Reyes-Chow launches church on-line

Here’s the idea: start a new Presbyterian church. Progressive. Online.

Former General Assembly moderator Bruce Reyes-Chow and a small group of Presbyterian leaders from across the country have announced plans to plant a new church that would connect people primarily through social media.

Presbyterian News Service

Forged by war: A pastor’s calling, a father’s journey

Downey, Calif. (Special to the Presbyterian News Service) The Rev. Candie Blankman, pastor of the multi-cultural urban First Presbyterian Church of Downey, admits that her Midwestern, suburban and fairly homogenous small town upbringing might seem a world away from her current call.

News from other sources

Top European official urges Iran to halt execution of Christian pastor

Geneva (ENInews) The European Union's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Catherine Ashton, urged Iran to release a Christian pastor sentenced to death for apostasy amid reports his execution may be imminent.

Movie Reviews

“Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance”

Despite the fact that this movie is really bad, there are some decidedly religious themes, which make it at least an idle curiosity.

Movie Reviews

“The Secret World of Arriety”

“The Borrowers” was originally written in 1952, and there have been many literary and cinematic adaptations ever since, but the concept is a timeless one: the reason things keep disappearing around the house is that there are little people who live under the floor and “borrow” them. They don’t mean anyone any harm, they just take what they need and try to keep a low profile, so you never see them.

Movie Reviews

Film in review: “There Be Dragons”

It’s the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). The entire country is in chaos. What began as a kind of populist “occupy movement” turned into a full-blown revolution, where family members took up arms against each other. After the fighting started there was no stopping it until the bitter end, and in that war there were many bitter endings.

Movie Reviews

Film in review: “Safe House”

Matt Weston (Ryan Reynolds) is one of those patriotic young Americans who think they're doing everything they're supposed to do.

Movie Reviews

Film in review: “Pina”

The reason this is such a fantastic documentary is it doesn’t consist primarily of boring interviews and stultifying background information. This is almost pure performance art. And it’s unique.

Movie Reviews

Film in review: “Journey 2: The Mysterious Island”

There’s a reason that a certain set of movies is released at the end of the year, around Oscar voting time, and another set is released….sometime after. Right about now. Nobody even remotely expects this thing to win any awards for anything. But who cares? It’s Hollywood, so get the 3-D glasses, go buy some popcorn, bring the kids and lower your expectations and you’ll be fine.

Presbyterian News Service

COGA, GAMC propose 35-cent per capita increase over two years

Louisville (PNS) The Committee on the Office of the General Assembly and the General Assembly Mission Council’s (GAMC) Executive Committee are proposing to the upcoming 220th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) that the General Assembly per capita (per member) apportionment increase from its current $6.63 to $6.80 in 2013 and to $6.98 in 2014.

Voices

OPPRESSION

Presbyterian News Service

New church development receives $50,000 to further mission in Southern California

Louisville -- New Hope Presbyterian Church, in the Presbytery of Los Ranchos in Southern California, has been named winner of the 2012 Sam and Helen R. Walton Award.

Outlook Reporting

PJC sustains Jane Spahr same-gender marriage conviction

SAN ANTONIO -- The General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission – the highest court in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) – has ruled that Presbyterian minister Jane Adams Spahr violated the denomination’s constitution when she performed same-gender marriages in California in 2008.

Outlook Features

Jumping to inevitabilities

Don’t jump to conclusions. The Fellowship of Presbyterians has launched a new denomination, the Evangelical Covenant Order of Presbyterians (ECO), signaling yet another structural divide in the mainline Presbyterian Church family (see pp. 12-16). But it remains to be seen whether this will produce a split or just a splinter. That depends on us. All of us.

Outlook Reporting

Few churches appear ready to leave for new Presbyterian denomination

ORLANDO, Fla.

It appears that a relatively small number of congregations are ready to bolt the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) immediately to join the Evangelical Covenant Order of Presbyterians, a new denomination that the Fellowship of Presbyterians formed in January and which will begin accepting congregations as members April 1.

Outlook Reporting

‘God is calling us to dream’: ECO begins to take shape

ORLANDO, Fla.

The outlines of a new denomination — the Evangelical Covenant Order of Presbyterians, or ECO for short — began to take shape as the Fellowship of Presbyterians held its Covenanting Conference in Orlando Jan. 18-20.

Outlook Reporting

Fellowship’s theology document described as a work in progress

ORLANDO, Fla.

Two members of a writing team that produced a document on theology for the Fellowship of Presbyterians — a document that’s part of the constitution for the new denomination the Fellowship has created — answered questions about their work, and said they expect additional changes to be made in what they’ve produced.

Outlook Reporting

Younger leaders not rushing to the exits

ORLANDO, Fla.

Most of the young evangelical church leaders attending a recent Fellowship of Presbyterians event came from congregations that either plan to stay in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) or are still deciding whether to leave.

Voices

Is the PC(USA) still Christian?

Genesis 37 begins the tragic and redemptive story of the children of Israel. In a few brief paragraphs, a vivid picture is painted of a family rife with conflict.